1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a combination of a connector for glass elements and such glass elements to provide a loadbearing glass construction that comprises at least one glass post and at least one glass beam that are arranged adjacent to each other.
2. Description of Related Art
Such a combination is known from US2005/0055941. In this known combination the connector comprises a first fitting which is fitted to a first loadbearing glass component, a second fitting fitted to a second loadbearing glass component, and a glass load transmitting element located between the first fitting and the second fitting.
The known combination of connector and glass elements is used in order to benefit from the aesthetic qualities of glass as a constructional material. Obviously glass is transparent and when properly applied it allows for attractive designs in buildings. There are however important disadvantages that prevent widespread use of glass as a constructional material. As acknowledged in the prior art glass is a brittle material, which will fracture without any deformation at all. Glass does therefore not allow the use of common constructional measures that are possible with other constructional materials. The effort is therefore on the engineer to make use of glass in a manner that allows for the construction of a main loadbearing structure that basically consists of glass.
DE-U-298 07 619; DE-U-20 2010 015999; and the master's thesis of L. P. T. Schetters “Design and evaluation of a large span glass beam with safe failure behaviour”, URL:http://alexandria.tue.nl/extra2/afstversl/bwk/629575.pdf; 1 Apr. 2007, pages 33-37, XP 55057918 each separately disclose a combination of a connector for glass elements and such glass elements to provide a loadbearing glass construction that comprises at least one glass post and at least one glass beam that are arranged adjacent to each other, and wherein the connector is arranged to provide a rotationally fixed connection between the post and the beam. DE-U-20 2010 015999 further discloses that at least along a part of their edges the glass elements comprise reinforcement elements and that the connector is connected to said reinforcement elements.